Travel Tips

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Diamonds are a girl's best friend!

On the occasion of the opening of the new diamond museum at the Astridplaats, a parade was organized on the 25th of May.
There were other happenings because of the event, but I will put them in a seperate tralogues because that is more convenient.
This one is about the parade itself.

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Miss and Mister Diamond!

Later on in the afternoon I heard the story of a histerical still young looking woman that was running in all directions and gesticulating and yelling : That's my son !!! That's my son!!!
LOL
proud mothers can act crazy hahaha

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miss and mister diamant

one of the disadvantages of a sony cybershot, you can go to the grocery store, wash your hands, button your coat before your diafragma finally has reacted!
so it doesn't only eat and destroy very expensive iLithium batteries but you have to calculate that you can't really make pictures of moving objects.
so sorry I got this car driving walking speed only from behind while I pushed the button when it was still a mile away '-)
but I will have a better one taken with my reflex camera.

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the moving of the REAL!!! diamonds!
budy guards all around.
I will have better pics taken with my reflex and zoom lens.
No way I could get too close to these millions hehehe
You know what? I really wonder what those two body guards were talking about! Look at their faces hehehe.Intriguing!

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All the "trophees" were well guided!

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I think this guy is in the wrong parade? hehehe
Just kidding, but I do wonder what the connection is.

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Stadstrommelaars

Every official parade is opened by the "Stads trommelaars"

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Some local celebrity in a nice car.
~~~baby won't you drive my car?~~~
~~~yes! I'm gonna be a star!~~~

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High and (still) dry!
This is one of the doubledeck busses you can hop on and off for a guided drive through Antwerp.

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Strip figures related to stories with diamonds

here Suske & Wiske

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life figurants from the same strip Suske and Wiske
this one represents Tante Sidonia
Aunt Sidonia

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and this one is Wiske

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Mr Clouseau and the Pink Panther

These two were giving 50 real diamonds away ! (well an envelope with a paper in it that could be exchanged for the diamond later on at the Zoo).
it was not my lucky day :-(
I think they ran already out of diamonds. hahaha

I overheard some one saying when the exchange took place some one who kissed one of the co-organisators had 4 of his kids with a paper to exchange it into a diamond.
The one who told this said that the other public could be happy he didn't had 8 or more kids!
Not sure if this story is true???
But 4 diamonds in 1 family ? is this true? I hope she misunderstood!
I can hardly believe that an organisation like this can permit themselves to do such things.
So unless comfirmed, let's put this in the box of tales of the street '-)

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lot of public

A lot of people came to watch the parade.
Some people didn't knew why all that crowd was waiting for and politely asked what was going on.
And we were very happy to be able to explain and so they stayed and the crowd grew bigger and bigger.

I just got very much annoyed by some noisy Dutch (again)with some dumb blond that wanted every one to the pleasure of her being so stupid.
She was giving comments like
"Hey what is going on here? Look all those people stand there! hahaha! What a silly view!
They look like a bunch of stupid sheep that are waiting to see the "beerkar"(I don't know the English word, but it is the van that transports the excrements from animals or human?) pass by! Yes hehehe maybe it is only the beerkar that will pass! Sure is!
hehehe!! hahaha!!"

After 5 minutes however her curiosity grew bigger then her mouth so she asked me what we were doing there.
And believe me I all I wanted to do is turn my head towards her stupid face and make a sound of a sheep LOL
Instead I replied we were just stupid Belgian sheeps waiting to see the ***-van pass by and that for a stupid cow like she was she could go gaze at the trains passing by and I pointed her were the trainstation was.
On high heels she rushed away.
Oeff... I really got tired of all her stupid remarks.
Silly thing is that these kind of people seems to kick on it to let every one, in the area of at least 20 meters, hear how dumb they are!
Sorry I hope I didn't offend any of my good descent Dutch friends. I know it are always the bad examples that catch the eye, or rather the ear '-)
And believe me, we do get more then a handful every time in Antwerp!

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Believe me, this is no laundry LOL
but a flag.
There was so much wind that afternoon.
But the wind did something good, it blew all the clouds away so we could have a real unexpected and non-predicted sunny afternoon/early evening!

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well after the story of the sheeps and the cows, here came the horses LOL
the construction at the car with the two beauties on it, symbolizes a diamond, you can recognize all the facets of a diamond.

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I really like this breed of horses!

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the diamond ladies!

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for those with small screens or/and bad eyes, lets have a closer look!